Education

Since 2017, the Austrian and Polish Blind Union and VIEWS International are cooperating on the ERASMUS+ project “Beyond Barriers and Borders”, which focused on strengthening the daily living skills of participants. The project included three phases of training for visually impaired participants and sighted volunteers between 18 and 30 and over 50 years in Austria, Belgium and Poland.

News from EBU members

2017 was a year marked by the high production of legislation concerning disability in Portugal. Among these measures, which resulted from a collaboration with ACAPO, it is worth highlighting the creation of a social benefit attributed to all persons with disabilities, as long as they have their disability certified.

To mark its 80th anniversary, the Spanish National Organisation of the Blind (ONCE) has launched a newly-designed web site - www.once.es - to be its key communication channel and main portal for visitors to get to know more about the organisation. The new web page is open to the world and offers full information on ONCE’s social activities in all its action areas.

The Dutch human rights commission has criticised government plans to allow employers to pay workers with a physical or mental disability below the minimum wage. Ministers say allowing employers to break minimum pay rates will courage them to take on more disabled staff.

Old age

SENSNET is a project aimed at creating a European Academy that will design, develop, collect, test and valorise an innovative training pathway that will be tailored to the specific needs of professionals who work with people with sensory impairment (vision and/or hearing).